Mark Teixeira is out of the Yankees’ starting lineup for the eighth straight game tonight due to a lower lat strain, but he told Bryan Hoch of MLB.com that he’s aiming to make his return tomorrow.

Teixeira was originally expected to miss 3-4 days, so the Yankees have had to play short-handed for over a week now. The good news is that he has felt improvement since a platelet-rich plasma injection and had no issues today when he took on-field batting practice for the first time since the injury.

“I’m very happy,” Teixeira said. “The back spasms are gone, which I’ve been dealing with for a long time, so that’s really good. It’s good to see that the treatments worked and the time off helped, so hopefully they won’t come back.”

While it hasn’t been pretty, Brian McCann has functioned as the Yankees’ primary first baseman during Teixeira’s absence. He’s making his seventh straight start at the position tonight. Meanwhile, Francisco Cervelli is making his eighth straight start behind the plate.

After being limited to just 15 games last season due to a wrist injury, Teixeira is batting .231/.330/.443 with 17 home runs and 48 RBI over 76 games this season. He leads the Yankees in home runs, RBI, and OPS.

Both are known for being workout freaks. I think too many bulky muscles makes you susceptible to pulls, tears, etc. Flexibility would seem to be a better way to go, but maybe they work a lot on that too, I don’t know. But seems like players 50 years ago when I was growing up didn’t go on the DL 3-4 times/yr, like a lot of guys today, and they didn’t have all the workouts, unless you call lifting beers in hotel bars a workout.

Are you the “Doctor”?
Guys 50 years ago didn’t go on the DL as much because they got released and/or retired. Working out (and PEDs) have been around a long time, too. And there’s no reason to say no one was doing it 50 years ago. Most of these guys aren’t any more “bulky” than Jack LaLane. Also, back in the 50s and 60s a lot of guys grew up doing physical labor and also had off season jobs. I would say that’s pretty rare for kids these days, especially specialist elite athletes. So you probably don’t need to lift weights when you are lifting bricks and wheelbarrows and such. You didn’t really have to schedule exercise because life provided it, but people still worked out in more functional ways.

BTW, my stepdad, who was a heavyweight boxer and weightlifter and looked like a bodybuilder until his death, used to wear a shirt that said “I got this body from lifting weights- 12 ounces at a time.” I never saw him workout once.

According to this Article, his OPS of .773 leads the Yankees. In a previous article, many commenters questioned that a guy with a .777 OPS could be an “offensive upgrade” somewhere in their lineup. So, that .215 hitter would lead the Yankees in OPS. There you go.

He’s had a decent year given the amount of time he’s been off the field. It seems just when he finally gets locked in he ends up hurting himself. They could really use him to drive in some runs. I sometimes can’t believe how bad this team is with run production.